UniCredit

Duration is for the second time this week the choice for a periphery eurozone sovereign, after Italy mandated banks for a 30 year benchmark on Wednesday. But there was more woe for Greece at the very short end, as yields on its 13 week bills rose by 25bp at auction.

Pirelli, the Italian tyre maker, has revved up the year's loan market business with a €1bn facility signed last week, that the company said was three times oversubscribed.

Book sizes for Tuesday’s offerings of senior fixed rate deals have fallen sharply, compared to the unusually swollen orders placed for new issues in recent days, but the market is still steaming ahead.

German online hosting provider Host Europe will launch £535m-equivalent of leveraged loans this week, most likely on Monday afternoon, as part of its acquisition of Intergenia.

Two more issuers built on a strong start to the year for euro-denominated floating rate notes on Monday, as UniCredit sold a five year bond and BNP Paribas opted for a two year tenor for its second FRN of the year. UniCredit was able to draw solid demand for its deal, despite printing at an aggressive level compared to its fixed rate curve.

BMW priced €1.5bn of bonds on Friday, split evenly between five and 10 year tranches, following the slightly lower rated German car maker Volkswagen’s three tranche deal on Thursday.

In the first subordinated FIG deal of the year, Crédit Agricole Assurances, the wholly owned insurance subsidiary of Crédit Agricole SA, has launched an eleventh hour attempt at getting grandfathering for hybrid capital deals that aren’t compliant with new Solvency II capital rules.

Terna, the Italian electricity transmission system operator, signed a €750m credit facility last week. And more activity is expected soon in the Italian corporate loan market.

Siemens Audiology Solutions, the hearing aid business of Siemens, closed the final part of its acquisition debt package with great success late last Friday (December 12), allocating the €785m leveraged loan on the same day as the deadline for commitments.

Standard Bank — Bulgaria

Grupo Actividades de Construcción y Servicios (ACS) of Spain is in talks with a group of banks to refinance €2.2bn of debt, and plans to complete the deal in January 2015.

Siemens Audiology Solutions has enjoyed early commitments and well attended bank meetings in New York and London to market its €1.06bn loan and bond package to lenders.